Antidepressants generally inhibit REM sleep. This effect is
often considered to be a crucial feature of these drugs.
Trimipramine, however, is a tricyclic antidepressant which
does not inhibit REM sleep in rats (Khazan and Brown,
1970; Wassennan and Khazan, 1971). This result could be
confirmed in man: Dunleavy et al. (1972) administered this
drug to two healthy volunteers and found no alteration of
REM sleep. In our present study we examined the action of
trimipramine on sleep in patients with major depressive disorder.
We were especially interested in the effect on REM
sleep parameters. In order to elucidate the mode of action
of this 'drug, we investigated, in addition, the question of
whether the effect of trimipramine on prolactin, human
growth hormone, and cortisol resembled that of other antidepressants.